MEZARPOLYHouses or hotels? How many turns does each building take to pay off?
You've completed a set; how much should you build? Is one house enough, or should you go all the way to a hotel? Using Mezarpoly's own rent table and the landing rates from a 10,000-game simulation, we worked out, group by group, how many turns each building takes to pay for itself. The result runs against the common "one house is enough" idea.
- The rent table: Paris as an example
- How many turns does each building take to pay for itself?
- The first house is the slowest to pay back
- Hotel or three houses?
- Which group should you build on first?
- Rent inflation rewards building early
- Summary
- Method and limits
The rent table: Paris as an example
Paris, the most expensive city in the France group on Crimson Classic, costs ₺200. An empty lot collects ₺34; if the same player owns all three cities of the France group, that doubles to ₺68. Each building on Paris costs ₺100. The rent goes to ₺140 with 1 house, ₺350 with 2, ₺628 with 3 and ₺978 with a hotel.
Notice that the first house takes the rent from ₺68 to ₺140: an increase of ₺72. The second house adds ₺210, the third ₺278 and the hotel ₺350. Each building brings in more rent than the one before.
How many turns does each building take to pay for itself?
How quickly a building pays for itself depends on two things: how much it raises the rent, and how often opponents land on the city. We took landing rates from the 10,000-game simulation and assumed a four-player game where three opponents each move once per turn. The table shows how many turns it takes for one more building on every city of the group to pay back:
| Group | Cities | Building cost | 1st house | 2nd house | 3rd house | Hotel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | Salvador, Rio | ₺30 | 24.3 | 9.0 | 6.7 | 5.4 |
| Turkey | Izmir, Ankara, Istanbul | ₺50–₺60 | 24.6 | 7.9 | 6.0 | 4.7 |
| Japan | Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo | ₺70–₺80 | 19.9 | 7.0 | 5.2 | 4.2 |
| France | Marseille, Lyon, Paris | ₺90–₺100 | 16.6 | 5.7 | 4.3 | 3.4 |
| Germany | Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt | ₺110–₺120 | 18.7 | 6.1 | 4.5 | 3.6 |
| United Kingdom | Manchester, Liverpool, London | ₺130–₺140 | 17.2 | 5.7 | 4.3 | 3.5 |
| USA | Chicago, San Francisco, New York | ₺150–₺160 | 17.5 | 5.8 | 4.4 | 3.5 |
| China | Shanghai, Beijing | ₺180–₺200 | 20.0 | 6.7 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
Turn: the time it takes for everyone to play once. The calculation leaves out rent inflation and the rent discount for players who are behind. In a real game, rent grows after turn 21, so buildings pay back a little faster.
The first house is the slowest to pay back
In every group, the first house pays for itself in 16.6–24.6 turns. The buildings after it take 3.4–9.0 turns. The reason is set rent: once you own the whole group, empty lots already collect double rent. The first house adds little on top of that.
That makes "one house is enough" the worst option. Think of the first house as a ticket that opens the door to the second and third. If, when you complete a set, your cash won't stretch to at least two houses on every city, it may be better to save first, or to raise cash through a trade.
Hotel or three houses?
Classic property-game advice says the third house is the most efficient step. On Mezarpoly's rent table, every building pays back faster than the one before, and the hotel is the fastest. In the France group, the third house pays for itself in 4.3 turns and the hotel in 3.4.
But a hotel is not always the right move. Taking the France group to three houses from scratch costs ₺840. On Mezarpoly, if you are short of cash you sell buildings or mortgage cities to cover a debt, and with no cash left you will have to do that on the first big rent. Before moving to a hotel, make sure you keep enough cash for a rent or two.
Which group should you build on first?
The third house pays back fastest in United Kingdom (4.3 turns). The mid-priced and expensive groups are close to each other. The slowest is the cheap two-city Brazil group (6.7 turns): Salvador sits right after Start, so it is landed on rarely, and its rent is low. If you own Brazil and an expensive group, spend your buildings on the expensive one.
Rent inflation rewards building early
On Mezarpoly, rents grow a little every turn after turn 21: they double by turn 41 and reach two and a half times by turn 51, where they stay. The building cost stays the same. A building put up early collects rent for longer and also benefits from the higher rents later. Don't wait for the end of the game to build.
Summary
- Once you complete a set, don't stop at one house. The first house pays back in 16.6–24.6 turns, the next ones in 3.4–9.0.
- If you can, build at least two houses on every city. Because of the even-building rule, plan your budget for the whole group.
- A hotel pays back fastest, but don't run out of cash.
- Spend buildings on the expensive groups. In Brazil the third house takes 1.6 times as long to pay back as in the United Kingdom group.
- Build early. Rents grow as the game goes on; building costs don't.
Method and limits
- Rents and building costs come from the rent table on the game's server. Landing rates are the average of 10,000 games played with 4 bots on Crimson Classic. The other 11 standard maps use the same price layout as Crimson Classic, so the results hold for them too.
- The calculation describes an average game. With more opponents buildings pay back faster, with fewer they pay back slower (three times slower in a two-player game). You cannot build in a group with a mortgaged city, and its set rent does not double.
Try it now
Try the numbers at the table: Mezarpoly is free and plays with 2–8 people (8-player rooms are free too), with friends or bots. For more tactics, see the strategy guide.
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